Imagine and Communism?

[Change of Habit]

I've heard from a few people that John's classic song, "Imagine" is about communism. I guess I can kind of see how this is true, but I doubt he wrote it about communism. But think about it:

The first verse is all about atheism. Communists frown upon religion.

Communists believe in internationalism ("imagine there's no countries")

"Nothing to kill or die for" (liberals believe in that), "and no religion too" (what I said before)

"Imagine all the people living life in peace" (worrying about the earth's present instead of the past, as well as no social classes, and no economic problems)

"Imagine no possessions" (a far leftist policy)

"No need for greed and hunger" (people have no social classes, everyone is equal)

"Brotherhood of man" (same as above)

"Sharing all the world" (that's internationalism again)


Though, again, I highly doubt John Lennon was a commie, or wrote this in dedication to communism. I mean, if that were true, doesn't that mean communism and peace are the same thing? Oh well, it's still kind of interesting...

[nowheregirl]

Well, John himself described Imagine as "virtually the Communist Manifesto" (I can't remember which interview he said that in).

But I'm sure he didn't actually consider himself to be a communist. I think he liked the idea of communism but could see that it didn't work. This is what he said in his 1972 interview with Hit Parader magazine:

Q: "Tell me about your philosophy of life. Many of your comments have been construed as extreme left wing or communist."

JOHN: "They knock me for saying 'Power To The People' and say that no one section should have the power. Rubbish. The people aren't a section. The people means everyone.

"I think that everyone should own everything equally and that people should own part of the factories and they should have some say in who is the boss and who does what. Students should be able to select teachers.

"It may be like communism but I don't really know what real communism is. There is no real communism state in the world - you must realize that Russia isn't. It's a facist state. The socialism I talk about is 'British socialism,' not where some daft Russian might do it or the Chinese might do it. That might suit them. Us, we'd rather have a nice socialism here - a British socialism."

[nocturnalquadruped]

It's easy to forget that John had a fairly middle class upbringing, even though his child hood was tragic his financial position was looked after by his Aunt Mimi who was quite well off by the standards of the day. I think that John got a lot of his socialist leanings, like a lot of socialists, during his years at university, especially as he was trying to lead an independent life at this time and would have readily identified with his working class heritage. Imagine does describe a communist ideal and it also described a Utopian world that John and Yoko spent a large amount of time and pain trying to realise. Would John have opted for a communist led government. I think not, he believed in the strength of the individual to make society a better place which is more a Buddhist philosophy. Make all of the individuals happy and the collective will be happy. Hence "War is over if YOU want it."

[imagineforlennon]

Jun 22, 2007 10:46:02 GMT 1 nocturnalquadruped said:

It's easy to forget that John had a fairly middle class upbringing, even though his child hood was tragic his financial position was looked after by his Aunt Mimi who was quite well off by the standards of the day. I think that John got a lot of his socialist leanings, like a lot of socialists, during his years at university, especially as he was trying to lead an independent life at this time and would have readily identified with his working class heritage. Imagine does describe a communist ideal and it also described a Utopian world that John and Yoko spent a large amount of time and pain trying to realise. Would John have opted for a communist led government. I think not, he believed in the strength of the individual to make society a better place which is more a Buddhist philosophy. Make all of the individuals happy and the collective will be happy. Hence "War is over if YOU want it."

Well said nocturnalquadruped

[matt72582]

I think the right-wing loves to turn human rights into a partisan issue.

The East used socialism/communism as a way to give it a humanistic tone, and the West used the atrocities by the Bolsheviks to denounce it.

But in reality, it's never been practiced. The workers have never really controlled the means of production, it was always a totalitarianist state with the smokescreen of equality when it just wasn't practiced. You can't have a classless state with peasants and czars.

[johnnumberone]

I don't think he wrote it ABOUT communism or even if he had communism in mind, but it was hard to overlook for others and even to himself that they seemed very much alike. But like Matt said, it's never really been practiced, at least on a really big scale, so he definitely not thinking about Russia or anything.

[dougiezerts]

If love and peace is communism, then SO BE IT!